In the 2019 offseason, the Brooklyn Nets wooed both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to sign with them. By 2023, Irving is now a Dallas Maverick and Durant’s future in Brooklyn is in question. The Nets had lofty expectations over the last few seasons but struggled to reach them due to injuries, roster turnover, and off-court drama. A lot of off-court drama that is.
The Brooklyn Nets’ Culture Shift
In the mid-2010s, the Nets were considered one of the jokes of the NBA. They were in the midst of a lengthy rebuild after years of trying to compete with a core of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce. A core that never made it to the Eastern Conference finals. They had three straight seasons of under 3o wins but they were getting progressively better. They hired Kenny Atkinson as their head coach in 2016 and they acquired young assets such as Jarrett Allen, Caris Levert, Spencer Dinwiddie, and D’Angelo Russell.
This led to their best year since their rebuild began in the 2018-19 season. They were one of the big surprises of that season- despite being projected as a lottery team, they won 42 games and clinched the sixth seed in the East. And although they lost in five games in the first round to Philadelphia, many people were high on the Nets going into the 2019 off-season.
Expectations instantly got higher with their two main moves. They acquired star forward Kevin Durant through a sign & trade with Golden State, sending Russell to the Warriors in the deal. They then signed guard Kyrie Irving to team up with Durant.
The Big 3 Era
The first year in the Durant-Irving era was rather uneventful on the court. Durant was recovering from the torn Achilles he suffered in the 2019 Finals, so he did not play a single game in the 2019-20 season. Meanwhile, Irving only played 20 games due to a shoulder injury. They went 35-37 and lost to Toronto in the first round in the NBA Bubble. Most notably, Atkinson was fired after going 28-34, being replaced by rookie head coach Steve Nash.
In the 2020-21 season, there were rumblings about James Harden wanting out of Houston, and more rumblings about the Nets being one of his desired destinations. This led to a blockbuster deal, where the Nets traded Harden but dealt Jarrett Allen to Cleveland and Levert to Houston. Levert was later traded to Indiana for Victor Oladipo.
When the three were on the court together, they were elite. In 2021, they logged 119.6 offensive and 112.5 defensive ratings. In 2022, they did even better with a +21.4 net rating. The problem is that they only played 10 games together in total, making the trio very short-lived. In 2021, the Nets lost to Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference semifinals after Harden and Irving suffered injuries. Harden was then traded to the Philadelphia 76ers for a package centered around the disgruntled Ben Simmons.
Brooklyn’s Unrest
Similar to the Nets’ big three, the team’s 2022 playoff run was also short-lived. They won the seventh seed and ran into the 2nd seeded Boston Celtics in the first round. Despite Irving and Durant playing the entire round, the Nets were swept by the eventual Eastern Conference champions.
The following offseason was one of drama, mostly thanks to trade requests made by Durant and Irving. Irving was entering the last year of his contract and wanted an extension that the Nets were hesitant to give him. Meanwhile, Durant gave the team an ultimatum of either trading him or firing Steve Nasha and general manager Sean Marks. Neither scenario happened as both players rescinded their requests.
The headlines did not go away, however. Irving was suspended eight games in November for posting an antisemitic film on his Instagram. Nash was fired seven games into the season after a 2-5 start. After reports of them hiring suspended Celtics coach Ime Udoka surfaced, the Nets reneged on the decision, sticking with interim coach Jacque Vaughn.
The bombshell report of Kyrie Irving’s second trade request made rounds in February, due to his contract talks breaking down. Despite speculation of Irving requesting the trade as a negotiation tactic, he was instead traded away to Dallas for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, and three draft picks.
Missing the Net
The Brooklyn Nets went from fun upstarts to championship contenders in one offseason in 2019. The acquisitions of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were supposed to usher in a new era in Brooklyn. One that the Nets could not reach when they went all-in during the early-2010s. Further emphasized by the fact that many of the 2019 core was gone within two seasons. However, it just never came together as expected.
Overall, the duo only played 87 games together due to either injury, Irving’s vaccination status restricting him from playing home games in 2022, or both. The farthest that the Nets have gone in the playoffs was their 2nd round loss to the Bucks in 2021. They failed to win a single game over Boston in the 2022 first round.
Juxtapose the Nets with either the Los Angeles Lakers or Los Angeles Clippers, who also formed star duos in 2019. The Lakers have fallen on hard times over the past two seasons, but they won a title in 2020. The Clippers have had their drama as well, but they made the Western Conference finals in 2021. And they have managed to keep their stars, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, signed and happy for the moment.
Whether fans want to admit it or not, the Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving pairing in Brooklyn is both a modern NBA tragedy and a disappointment.
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